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In the Cards (episode)
Jake and Nog get into trouble while trying to cheer up Sisko by acquiring a mint-condition 1951 Willie Mays rookie baseball card; the Dominion offers to sign a nonagression pact with Bajor. Summary The mood aboard Deep Space 9 has grown dark as the Dominion threat has intensified. Three ships have disappeared along the Cardassian border just in the last three weeks, Odo has canceled a vacation due to increased thefts of food rations and medical supplies, and the crew in general is gloomy -- Captain Sisko most of all. What's more, Kai Winn Adami announces she'll be visiting the station. Fortunately, Jake Sisko has a plan to lift his father's spirits -- Quark has invited him to an auction at which a mint-condition Willie Mays rookie card will be available. He'll show up, purchase the baseball card, and make a gift of it. "How hard can that be?" Jake convinces Nog to let him use some of the gold-pressed latinum he's saved up over his lifetime so he can purchase the gift for the Captain, but even Nog's entire life savings isn't enough to out-bid a mysterious man at the back of the room. He bids 10 bars of latinum (twice what Nog has saved) and then disappears out the back. Nog tries to convince Jake they've lost the card, but Jake is determined to come through for his father. They intercept the man as he leaves the auction house but he mutters something about refusing to get involved with any "soulless minions of orthodoxy" and disappears into a turbolift. Kai Winn, meanwhile, has revealed that the Dominion has requested a meeting with her, and Weyoun arrives to discuss business. Both Sisko and the Kai are concerned about how Bajor will be able to cope with a pending Dominion invasion. The man who won the baseball card -- Dr. Elias Giger requests a meeting with Jake and Nog as well after learning of their relationships to Captain Sisko and Quark. It seems he needs some supplies he believes they're in a position to obtain, and he's willing to trade the baseball card for those supplies. Jake agrees, even after learning that Dr. Geiger plans to use the supplies in the construction of his cellular regeneration and entertainment chamber -- a device designed to keep the cells of the body from getting bored, thus prolonging life indefinitely. Jake and Nog agree that the man is crazy, but since he has the baseball card they have little choice. Geiger provided a lengthy list, so Jake and Nog go straight to work. For a neodynium power cell from a Cardassian phase-coil inverter they visit Chief O'Brien but he's too busy recallibrating EPS regulators to help. Nog, always a Ferengi strikes a deal. Jake and Nog will do the work while the Chief visits a holosuite for a chance to go kayaking for the first time in weeks. In exchange, O'Brien will find the power cell. For five liters of anaerobic metabolites suspended in a hydrosaline solution they call on Doctor Bashir, who's not only busy but is doing something he wants to do (so they can't strike a deal like they did with Chief O'Brien). Nog's cunning though, and he gets Bashir to admit that he'd be much happier if he had Kukalaka -- his teddy bear. The pair manage to retrieve him from Leeta while she's sleeping. While Jake and Nog are running errands, Kai Winn discusses Weyoun's proposal with Sisko. It seems the Dominion wants to sign a non-aggression treaty with Bajor. She recognizes that Starfleet can't possibly protect Bajor from the full strength of the Dominion, but also that allying with the Dominion could make Bajor the next world conquered. Sisko insists that she must stall for time and keep Bajor's options open. Weyoun, meanwhile, has gotten suspicious of the activity in the quarters below his -- Geiger's machinery. Nog has agreed to filter out sub-harmonic distortions from Worf's Klingon opera recordings while Jake helped Kira with an upcoming speech. When they've collected the last of the supplies, however, they find that Geiger is no longer in his quarters. What's more, Odo insists there never was such a person in those quarters. When he hears about the "Cellular Regeneration and Entertainment Chamber," he reads them a list of charges and scares them out of his office. Searching for an explanation, Jake blames Kai Winn thinking she was after a Bajoran mandolin that was auctioned in the same lot as the baseball card. He and Jake confront her in the corridor as Weyoun departs. Sisko is furious when he finds out, but Jake (still wanting to surprise his father) hides the truth and insists that he and Nog got drunk at Quark's before approaching the Kai. As they leave his office in the turbolift, they're suddenly beamed onto Weyoun's ship where he inquires about their connection to Dr. Geiger. Jake explains that they were just trying to acquire a baseball card, but Weyoun doesn't believe them. When Jake concots an absurd story about hunting for a mysterious man from the future named Willie Mays, Weyoun realizes their original story was truthful and releases them -- with the baseball card. So Chief O'Brien has had time to go kayaking in the holosuite, Dr. Bashir has Kukalaka back (though Leeta is confused about losing him), Major Kira's speech was taken well, and Worf is able to listen to his opera collection again. Weyoun even takes an interest in Geiger's work on immortality. Most importantly, Captain Sisko has a mint-condition Willie Mays rookie baseball card from Earth, 1951. The whole station feels happier. Memorable Quotes * "Lions and Geigers and Bears" "Oh, my." -- Nog and Jake * "It's not my fault that your species decided to abandon currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement." - Nog to Jake Background Information This is the first episode of Star Trek to be directed by Michael Dorn. Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax) does not appear in this episode. Morn can be seen leaving the bar with the painting Quark offered for auction just after the baseball card. This is the same painting Quark would inherit in DS9: "Who Mourns for Morn?". Links and References Guest Stars *Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun *Brian Markinson as Doctor Elias Giger *Aron Eisenberg as Nog *Chase Masterson as Leeta Special Guest Star * Louise Fletcher as Kai Winn Adami References Berengaria VII; Kukalaka; neodymium; money; ''Tian An Men'', USS; Category:DS9 episodes de:Die Karte nl:In the Cards